CM works because it doesn't whine. It just does. It doesn't demand more bike facilities--it makes any street it takes a bike facility. It presents no consensus and doesn't demand that participants buy in on a mealy-mouthed shopping list of issues. There are a zillion different meanings for the mass, but only one message, spoken in the simple language of feet, pedals and wheels.

Biking itself is fun, pure, and clean and its goodness cannot be questioned. Cars are dubious and their merit can be questioned. So as long as Critical Mass stays about promoting the bicycle and having fun, Critical Mass will be fun, pure, and clean. And when we question the value of cars , that's when we get that touch of left wing activism that we so much need. Critical Mass dosen't need any other messages being sent to muddle our role as bicycle activists and players of protesting pranks on the car culture. We've got our work cut out for us, I mean c'mon, we are trying to save the world from the clutches of the automobile genocide of the human race, right?

It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there will be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.

Where does the motorist get the right 'to master' -- as he boasts -- the street? It in no way belongs to him, but to the population as a whole. Whence his right to hound the people's footsteps and dictate to them a behavior that he is justified in demanding only on his own private paths? The public street is not meant for express traffic; it belongs to the milieu of the city....

A teacher shows us what we can not learn in a book. What is the feel of adjustments that are too tight or too loose, where to place your head to see adjustments, where to place your fingers to feel and test adjustments, and how to move your hands to feel and test procedures.